The objective of this project is to develop and pilot a valid and reliable protocol for use by Emergency Department staff in identifying battering victims. The project has four aims. First, a protocol will be developed for use by Emergency Department (ED) staff in identifying battering victims appearing at EDs. The basis for protocol development is data collection from three hospital EDs by three qualitatively different approaches: medical record review, participant observation, and ED staff interviews employing hypothetical case histories. Second, the validity of the protocol will be assessed by two means. Content validity will be determined with the assistance of an advisory group of representatives of all generic types of Philadelphia agencies involved with battering victims. To determine construct validity, a research design will be implemented which allows for tests of hypotheses of the impact of protocol use. ED staff in six hospitals will provide data on victims identified and staff-victim interaction before and during protocol use, for within-group comparisons. In addition, we will compare matched groups of three hospitals, one group using the protocol and one not using it, for between-group comparisons. Third, the reliability of the protocol will be assessed through parallel use of the protocol by ED staff in six hospitals, with both real patients and mock cases. Fourth, a typology of different syndromes of ED battering cases will be developed from the data base collected on the six hospitals.